April 7, 2011

He's second only to Mitt in a recent poll. But there's no way he can be the nominee. What's going on? Name recognition? An early-in-the-game spirit of fun? I don't know, but he's in it now enough that he'll be listened to and included in the debates, and he can say whatever he wants until the moment arrives when he throws his support over to some realistic candidate. Meanwhile, we've got him stirring up the old birther issue, going where candidates who must coddle their credibility dare not go.

128 comments:

Much like the men in the suite with John Cleese in "Rat Race", I think some very few people are rich enough to have exhausted all other forms of entertaining themselves. Trump is, if nothing else, good at sensing a moment and acting on it. He sensed that there was a slight whiff of possibility at a presidential run and he decided to do it on a lark. Probably with, "I'm going to do and say the things everyone always says they want a president to do and say. If I win, yay for me. If not, it's not like I'm hurting for backups."

I also made the mistake of listening to him on some news program recently, and . . . damn, if he didn't make a lot of sense (birtherism aside, but even there he's speaking for a large segment of the population that feels they're not allowed to raise the question).

If Trump is somehow elected president, the first executive order will be the deportation of Rosie O'Donnell. I'm not sure that isn't an effective high-concept strategy for winning the whole shootin' match.

Chris Christie, who knows Trump personally, says Trump has no intention of running for president but likes to cause a media splash. Which is fine. But in the process he's setting the agenda for those who will run for the Republican nomination. Topic #1 is this stupid bullshit dumbass idiotic birther nonsense. He needs to knock that off.

Give the Donald a chance at being President. Either the USA gets rich or has to file for Bankruptcy. But at least the American Military will work for the USA or not at all. In Scotland the Donalds/McDonalds were called the Lord of the Isles and were always famous for their superior governance skill.

It's hardly remarkable that Trump would comment on it, since the Democrat governor of Hawaii brought the issue front and center.

The Democrat governor of Hawaii did that.

Isn't it odd that he can't find the alleged birth certificate? Being the governor, and all? Having access to all the records and being a Democrat with no axe to grind? Isn't that odd that the Democrat can't find any birth certificate?

Which is fine. But in the process he's setting the agenda for those who will run for the Republican nomination. Topic #1 is this stupid bullshit dumbass idiotic birther nonsense. He needs to knock that off.

Ooooh, it's just the opposite. He's taking that on so others don't have to.

Yes, he knows how to milk the cameras. And, yes. He has a successful TV show, when he's not hosting Miss America.

Where's the problem? Those who are "voting" in these polls don't make up a majority of voters.

But the good news is that John McCain isn't running.

What are the political lessons? HELLO. You just saw a million or more voters in Wisconsin, showing up to vote in a special election. And, all Prosser got is 200 less than half.

And, a whole ruckus that will go on, trying to find out how some of the Prosser votes got buried.

The media won't be paying attention.

While, yes. Trump is right to make an issue of who was this guy, "Obama," when he got born? He's not responsible for coming our illegitimate. Nor is he responsible for the communist friends that hung off his mother's arse.

And, while we're out it, where are his school records? Why did he use a social security number derived from Wisconsin?

Why, in 2004, when he won his first senate seat, did an article start off "Kenyan Born Obama?" Obviously this is one cooked up phony story.

Trump will tell it like it is because he doesn't worry about being politically correct and that will help the other Republican candidates. He didn't take any crap from that bully Rosie O'Donnell like everyone did before he shut up her bully mouth.

He wants to be the spoiler. He's not planning to be nominated, he's planning to run as an independent, a la Ron Paul or Ross Perot.

But he doesn't want to be President. He's only pushing the birther stuff (and other loony right-wing issues) in an attempt to peel the hard-core anti-Obama votes away from whoever actually wins the Republican nomination.

He's not afraid of calling BHO out as the disaster that he is, unlike the milquetoast Repubs like Romney, Huckabee, Pawlenty, etc.

He himself said that at first he was quite sure Obama was born in Hawaii and he simply wished he would produce the birth certificate and clear the air, but three weeks later he's much more skeptical.

He hates the fact that America has become the world's whipping boy, something that Obama and the copperhead Dems revel in, so he is quite capable of galvanizing the non anti-American segment of the population, which is pretty much everyone who's not a liberal Democrat.

Meanwhile, we've got him stirring up the old birther issue, going where candidates who must coddle their credibility dare not go.

If you were president, and if your birth status were questioned, wouldn't you settle it immediately by producing your official birth certificate?

I'm a long way from being a "birther," but after all it is a fair question: If this is all moonbeam madness, why doesn't Obama produce his birth certificate and put a stop to it? He's hardly coddling his credibility by remaining silent.

At first I thought his running was crazy, but now I'd vote for him. Obama has shown that anyone can be president; all we need is someone to not veto the Republicans in Congress. That is ALL I am looking for.

What Trump has in his favor, is an inability to be shamed. He can go on any liberal's television show and survive unscathed, maybe even pull in a few votes.

Look at what he has done with the "birther" issue. You used to sound like a nut is you wondered out loud about Obama's birth certificate, but Trump has made it an item of interest to the average person. And why shouldn't it be?

No more not knowing everything we can about people before they are elected. And if they are keeping things from us, they don't belong in office.

Peano: I'm a long way from being a "birther," but after all it is a fair question: If this is all moonbeam madness, why doesn't Obama produce his birth certificate and put a stop to it?

You are course precisely right. There must be something on Obama's real birth certificate that he doesn't want anyone to see--either that his race was listed as white, that he had a different father than the one he claims, that his religion wasn't Christian.

Trump says Obama spent $2 million keeping his birth certificate private. Why even spend $2 unless there was something on it he desperately needed to hide?

Why is a well educated man, with a long record of success in turning financial failure into success considered a silly candidate, and a man with no experience doing much of anything is worth voting for?

Obama has used up all the leverage form the birther charge. Now people are just asking why he doesn't settle it. He is the one looking suspicious at this point. Even if he produces it now, he will still stink from the disrespect that withholding it rightfully puts on him.

" ... and a man with no experience doing much of anything is worth voting for?"

If you were a billionaire (like Warren Buffet) wouldn't you rather have a buffonic moron for President?

Rich folk don't want no smart Presidents in office.

They want idiots.

And they bought 'em one.

David Sokol and Buffett's partner Charlie Munger have been illegally trading stocks on inside information only Berkshire Hathaway knew, and they have admitted as much in the pages of the Wall Street Journal in recent days.

And yet, the Obama Administration is too fucking tupid to walk down the street and arrest them for their crimes.

The Repubs need the evangelicals to win, as we saw with McCain. They didn't like McCain. Shall we say McCain wasn't exactly catnip for the evangelicals. Trump will be even further secularist, and would ruin the party's chances. Also, he's got the bimbo for a wife (she may be smart, but she just barely speaks any English, or at least anything like any English that I know about).

The Donald is a lot of fun and would get us back to basics in economic terms. Set the country free of all its fetters. The Donald! It would be smooth sailing. But he'll never get the chance, alas.

The left would hate him and turn out in droves. The right would hate him, and stay home. Only small group of economic conservatives and secular businessmen and women would like him to win.

"Because every time a Republican publicly endorses Birtherism, the Republican party loses support among swing voters."

This is a canard. The most average, non political person is wont to just tell the president to produce the freaking document. What, they ask, is the big freaking deal? It is not a super clever ploy on Obama's part because if it is produced people will only shrug and wonder why he didn't bring it out sooner, why he was so sophomoric.

Trump is pro life, anti gay marriage, a person with some real life experience including failed marriages and businesses that required audacious fixes. He is not an academic but is well and plain spoken. Given the chance he would crucify Obama on a one on one basis. The Obama pauses and evasions are now known for what they are: not examples of thoughtfulness but examples of running out the clock and struggling for words. His lack of bullshit, or rather his quality of bullshit is very appealing.

Every time I try to get a job I have I have to produce my birth certificate and driver's license on the I-9 form to prove that I am an American citizen.

I also ad to give my birth certificate to the U.S. State Department in order to obtain a passport to travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands. That's right, I had to produce my birth certificate to vacation in a place that is not even OUTSIDE the United States of America.

There is nothing whatsoever abnormal about requiring to see someone's birth certificate. And the fact that the new Democrat Governor of Hawaii says he can't find one for Barack Obama is quite illumninating.

It suggests that Barack Obama wasn't born here and isn't an American and cannot prove that he is.

And it would be trivial, really, for Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate ... but he refuses to do so. Perhaps because one doesn't exist.

I think that disqualifies him from running for a second term and the Electoral College should not be fooled by him again. Electors are under no obligation to award foreigners any delegates.

And if it doesn't disqualify him from running, then really, why do we even have a Constitution any more?

If the President of the United States is above the law ... then none of us have to follow the law.

The Nordyke twins have produced their Hawaii birth certificates. They look nothing like Mr. Obama's COLB. They were born the day before President Obama in the same hospital in Honolulu that he claims. Their birth certificate numbers are 151–61–10637 and 151–61–10638. The latter is the later-born twin. Numbers were rationally in order of babies' appearance into the world.

The following is Mr. Obama's certificate number on the COLB: "151-1961-010641"

Mr. Obama was born the day before the Nordyke twins, on August 4th, 1961. They were born on August 5th.

I think that's a little odd.

So why doesn't Mr. Obama produce the birth certificate that should look exactly like the ones from the Nordyke twins?

I'm also curious about why Nancy Pelosi changed the language of the Certification of Nomination for 49 states (except HI, who complained). She kept the exact same form, but took out the phrase "is legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution." The language was left in for McCain, for Kerry, and for Gore (and for Hawaii). Another very odd thing to do.

Ann, I'm beginning to find Trump a bit worrisome, and not over the "birther" stuff, which is, after all, Obama's own doing for refusing to release the documents that would make the entire thing go away.

I'm beginning to get a whiff of "Man on a White Horse" emanating from The Donald.

He is espousing every single issue beloved of any populist segment - from the birther stuff, to anti-Chinese tariffs, to extemely pointed belligerence (Bomb them! Bomb them now!) toward Islamic foes, and just about any other issue he can grab on to.

Add to this that he is personable, quite able to defend himself on his feet, and more than rich enough to keep himself front and center.

People on both sides are sick and tired of the same old politicians being trotted out to say and do the same old things, while for a lot of folks, life just gets worse and worse.

I think the Donald could actually end up being fairly dangerous, especially if he can find a way to coalesce inchoate populist longings around himself.

hombre-- ??? So, you don't think the COLB Obama released is real, but you also don't think it's forged? I'm really curious how this is possible, genuinely curious.

William-- just noting that you are repeating the "birther-lite" meme. "Obama's own doing for refusing to release the documents that would make the entire thing go away" ... No. He released the COLB. You think it's fake. It's on you, you and WND and the Donald, not on Obama.

Just to make things even more sitcom, Bloomberg is apparently serious about running a third-party campaign. (It got off to a really bad start thank goodness, but that doesn't mean the old egotist won't go full Perot with it.)

Just imagine Trump, Bloomberg, Obama, and Palin on a single stage. The Universe may end right there in awe and disgust.

If he lied and doesn't have the birth certificate, is it a crime? If so, what are the penalties? Would it immediately disqualify him from the presidency if it could be proved? Would he go to prison if he was caught? Would he spend years at Gitmo being waterboarded by Rove and Cheney so that we could find out other information about him? What's the absolute worst case scenario if he really did lie about this? What's the very worst legal consequence that could happen to him?

I would have thought that Trump polling for President is mostly in the spirit of fun, but probably also in the spirit of combating the self-destructive notion that business is the enemy of the economy.

I had no idea he was being audacious about whatever... and I view Obama's birth certificate as "whatever."

I find it so profoundly irrational to present business and industry and wealthy business and industrial people as the enemy of the economy that I don't even know how to frame the argument.

How does one rebut that folly except for voting for Trump in a pre-season fun poll?

It's like Soros and Koch... it's not that Soros is rich, but that he pays for the promotion of business killing and business vilifying policies and a person has to wonder why. He's already got his? He's rich enough to manipulate the system? The Kochs are about limited government, and sure that's going to help them, too, but at least it doesn't screw over the rest of us.

Obama talks about sharing the sacrifice, which seems to be a way of saying "make sure to screw business and anyone who has done well." You almost wonder if he's on the side of Michael Moore and his "solution" of simply confiscating everything the rich people have because it's a "national resource." And someone has some tax breaks for the "rich" in Wisconsin or in the proposed national budget and OMG how can we even THINK of the fiscal well being of the people with enough money to own a company and employ people! They are the enemy.

We need more taxes so we can hire more in the public sector or something, because there's a, um, multiplier, don't ya know. And the rich people don't need their money, don't deserve it, and don't even spend it. So take it away and make us all wealthy.

Really?

And someone the other day asked, very matter of fact, if someone had gone somewhere to make money... because the desire to make money and having made money makes all your ideas suspect, your opinions second class. You're not sufficiently altruistic to be trusted if you're profit motivated? It seems that way.

I have to admit, though, if The Donald exposed whatever Obama is hiding in his past - and it got Obama disqualified as president - I'd gladly give Trump my support for doing a service to the country. I'd campaign for him if that happened and he then ran against the media.

hombre-- ??? So, you don't think the COLB Obama released is real, but you also don't think it's forged? I'm really curious how this is possible, genuinely curious.

I fail to recall Obama personally releasing documentation of his birth or making any specific claims about this. I believe an Obama proxy or friendly website released a kinda funny looking 'copy' of a COLB. Can anyone point me to a press release from Obama,or his official campaign or the WH? Maybe a transcript of remarks by Obama?

Shoot, I'd love to see comparison of DNA from Obama, one of his African family and his half-sister (anyone seen pix Obama's pregnant mama?). Shouldn't be hard to get unless the SS guards all glasses, eating utensils and his golf clubs/gloves.

Ut said... The new Democrat governor of Hawaii went in search of his birth certificate and reports back that he is unable to locate one.

I don't think he said he couldn't find it--he said he couldn't release it without Obama's permission. See article excerpted below:

APNewsBreak: Hawaii won't release Obama birth info

HONOLULU--Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie will end his quest to prove President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii because it's against state law to release private documents, his office said Friday.

State Attorney General David Louie told the governor he can't disclose an individual's birth documentation without a person's consent, Abercrombie spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said.

"There is nothing more that Gov. Abercrombie can do within the law to produce a document," said Dela Cruz. "Unfortunately, there are conspirators who will continue to question the citizenship of our president."

Crack Emcee said...I have to admit, though, if The Donald exposed whatever Obama is hiding in his past...

Well, the first, and potentially fatal mistake the media made was to cast Trump as a "birther" (ie crazy person - because every sane person on the planet "KNOWS" Obama was born in Hawaii). Although it's never been proved, only asserted.

So The Donald not only dug in his heals, but he's going to town on the believers. Because come hell or high water he's gonna drag it out of Hawaii until it hurts. Until the cost of the cover-up becomes so outrageous, even Bill Ayers will capitulate.

So Jason, tell me again how the GOP is the party for gay people? Trump practically tripped trying to get to a mic fast enough to declare that he opposed same-sex marriage.

If support for same-sex marriage by Presidential candidates is the qualifier for declaring a party "the party for gay people", there IS no "party for gay people". Obama is opposed to gay marriage, as was McCain, as was Kerry, and Bush, and Gore, and Clinton, and Dole, and etc etc etc.

What people like about Trump is the fact that he'll say what's on his mind, and he doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks. Fresh air. It's hard to defend a claim that obama's birthplace was in Hawaii with no one able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

Even before Gail Collins was with the New York Times, she has written nasty and derogatory articles about me. Actually, I have great respect for Ms. Collins in that she has survived so long with so little talent....For some reason, the press protects President Obama beyond anything or anyone I have ever seen.